Prompt 1 Essay

Brave New World is a political satire because society’s view of God compared to Huxley’s view of Gad appeals to human weaknesses. Reductio ad absurdum also describes the style of satire because of the implausibility of Huxley’s world.

In the quote where Mustapha Mond refers to their society that is able to thrive without the existence of God, Huxley uses techniques of satire. Huxley writes of a subject that exposes people’s sore spot. In a society where many devote their lives to the one they believe to be their creator, the absence of that Divine being is difficult to accept. Huxley exhibits human weakness through the Savage. The savage sees the Ford age similarly to the typical reader. His own weakness and inability to cope with this new world ultimately leads to the savage taking his own life. Huxley uses ideals of mockery to address the society of today and what it could become. Today there is God; but also, there is crime, diseases, corruption and greed. In Huxley’s world there is no God in which the people believe, but there is also no crime, no diseases, and economic stability. The two worlds are quite the contrast. Huxley is not mocking people’s beliefs of God, but emphasizing the natural instinct of greed and expressing how man’s desires could over take man’s necessities. Huxley exposes that man’s weakness is himself and that weakness can cause a socially moral society’s downfall.

The next aspect of satire involves irony. Mustapha Mond is explaining to the savage hypocritically why society can now function without God when he himself believes in God. Savage- "Then do you think there is no God?" Mustapha- "No, I think there quite possibly is one." Mustapha seems to be a corrupt leader. Huxley is portraying the future leaders or characterizing current ones: leaders do not have to believe what they promote so long as it is profitable. This also ties into the type of satire Reductio ad absurdum. Is a society that has no crime, no disease, practically no problems, but no free will really the utopian society they strive to achieve? These people live in a economically successful society but do not live real free lives. Reductio ad absurdum is Brave New World’s satirical technique because a society, such as the one Huxley creates, appears successful as a whole community but is not what is best for the actual citizens living within the community.

By the use of satire Huxley ridicules today’s society by illustrating what it could possibly become or what is already has become. Brave New World is a satire because Huxley illustrates how a utopian society where everyone lives in perfect harmony cannot be possible.